Course Details

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT · ENGLAND AND WALES

Positive Behaviour Support

Understand the behaviour. Improve life. Reduce the restriction.

TEN MODULES · 20-QUESTION ASSESSMENT · INDICATIVE 10–12 LEARNING HOURS

CPD HOURS

20 hours

ACCREDITED BY

CPD Standards Office

FORMAT

Blended self-paced

SLIDES

PPT Deck

LISTEN

Audio Podcast

QUIZ

Audio Quiz

VISUAL

Infographic

Overview

Positive Behaviour Support is a ten-module continuing professional development course for people who already support children or adults whose behaviour can challenge, in England and Wales. It teaches practitioners to understand why behaviour happens, to assess function and health, to build proactive plans that improve quality of life, to respond safely and lawfully when things escalate, and to lead practice so that restriction reduces.

The course is built on the UK consensus definition of PBS (Gore et al., 2013), the PBS Competence Framework (2015), NICE NG11 (2015), the Restraint Reduction Network Training Standards, the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 statutory guidance (England, 2021) and the Welsh Government’s Reducing Restrictive Practices Framework (2021). It is pitched at the ‘direct support’ and ‘practice leadership’ levels of the Competence Framework. It does not train physical intervention, specialist functional analysis or prescribing — those sit with RRN-certified trainers, specialist practitioners and prescribers under their own regulation.

Who this course is for

Practitioners already support children or adults whose behaviour can be challenged. Assumes you have a PBS plan or the need for one, policies, a supervisor and a service to apply the learning to. Family carers are welcome alongside practitioners: much of the evidence for PBS comes from family-led implementation.

▸ Learning disability and autism services
support workers, supported living and residential staff, community learning disability teams, specialist nurses, day services

▸ Children and education
teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs and ALNCos, residential childcare workers, special school and PRU staff, CAMHS support workers

▸ Older people and dementia care
care home and domiciliary staff, registered managers, dementia leads

▸ Mental health and inpatient
healthcare assistants, nurses, ward managers, reducing-restrictive-practice leads

▸ Allied and clinical
occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists and assistants, social workers

▸ Leadership
team leaders, registered managers, quality leads and commissioners planning PBS implementation

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you will be able to:

✓
Define PBS using the UK consensus definition and describe its values, theory and process.

✓
Explain behaviour as communication, identify the four common functions and distinguish setting events, antecedents and consequences.

✓
Describe the stages of a functional assessment, record ABC data accurately and frame a testable hypothesis.

✓
Recognise health, sensory, communication and medication factors that drive behaviour; counter diagnostic overshadowing; describe STOMP/STAMP.

✓
Design proactive strategies — environment, skills teaching and Active Support — that make behaviour unnecessary.

✓
Set out and review a PBS plan with primary, secondary, reactive and post-incident tiers, co-produced with the person and family.

✓
Recognise escalation, apply de-escalation principles at practitioner level, define restrictive practice and the legal tests in England and Wales, and support people after incidents.

✓
Apply the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and locate the main duties, guidance and regulators that shape PBS in each nation.

✓
Explain why quality of life is the outcome, describe the national policy context, and use at least one quality-of-life measure.

✓
Describe practice leadership and the PBS Competence Framework, and plan realistic steps to embed PBS in a service.

Career path

PBS is named in NICE guidance, inspection frameworks, commissioning specifications and personal specifications across England and Wales. None of the routes below is a guarantee of employment, progression or pay — those depend on your employer, your profession and your own evidence of practice.

▸ Direct support roles — support worker, care worker, teaching assistant, healthcare assistant, residential childcare worker; evidences the ‘direct support’ level of the PBS Competence Framework

▸ Practice leadership — team leader, deputy or registered manager, senior support worker, SENCO or pastoral lead; Modules 6, 9 and 10 give the practice-leadership content inspectors and commissioners look for

▸ Registered professions — learning disability and mental health nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, social workers and teachers can record this CPD against their regulator’s requirements; does not replace profession-specific training

▸ Towards specialist PBS roles — behaviour analyst, PBS practitioner, clinical or educational psychologist pathways require accredited postgraduate training and supervised practice; use this course as foundation, not qualification

This is CPD, not a qualification. Professions regulated by the NMC, HCPC, Social Work England, Social Care Wales, EWC or similar bodies should record it against their own CPD requirements. Specialist PBS and behaviour-analytic roles, and any role using restrictive interventions, need accredited or certified training and supervision beyond this course.

Course structure

1
What Positive Behaviour Support Is — and Is Not

2
Understanding Behaviour: Function, Context and Communication

3
Functional Assessment and Using Data

4
Health, Wellbeing and Setting Events

5
Proactive Strategies: Environment, Skills and Active Support

6
Writing, Using and Reviewing a PBS Plan

7
Escalation, Reactive Strategies and Restrictive Practice

8
Law, Rights and Regulation in England and Wales

9
Quality of Life, Rights and Community

10
Practice Leadership and Embedding PBS

Apply and Reflect

Each module closes with an Apply and Reflect task that doubles as CPD evidence. A practitioner-support note precedes Module 7 (including Samaritans, 116 123), which is pitched at recognition, de-escalation principles, law and post-incident practice only, plus a 20-question assessment with a trainer-only answer key.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Is this a qualification or a licence to practise?

No. It is continuing professional development. It does not confer a regulated qualification, registration, or authorisation to carry out functional assessment as a specialist, to use or teach restrictive interventions, or to prescribe or advise on medication. Competence is judged where you work.

Q. Is it accredited, and how many CPD points is it worth?

Accreditation, CPD points and certification are set by the provider and any awarding or accrediting body they work with. None are claimed in this pack.

Q. Does it include training in physical intervention or restraint?

No, deliberately. Training with a restrictive-intervention component must be delivered by providers certified against the Restraint Reduction Network Training Standards. Module 7 covers recognition, de-escalation principles, law and post-incident practice only.

Q. Does it cover Scotland or Northern Ireland?

No. Capacity law, safeguarding, education law and restraint guidance differ. The PBS principles travel; the references do not.

Q. Does it make me a PBS practitioner or behaviour analyst?

No. It maps to the ‘direct support’ and ‘practice leadership’ levels of the PBS Competence Framework (2015). Specialist roles require regulated or accredited training and supervision beyond this course.

Q. Is it a substitute for the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training?

No. That is a statutory requirement for CQC-registered providers in England (Health and Care Act 2022) with its own standardised package. This course complements it.

Q. What if the content is difficult for me personally?

That is anticipated. A practitioner-support note precedes Module 7, you can pause at any time, and support routes are listed. You are not required to disclose anything about yourself.

Q. Are YouTube videos required?

They are recommended, freely available third-party resources chosen for relevance, not owned or endorsed by this course. Providers should check each link still works before delivery.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT · 20 CPD HOURS · ACCREDITED BY CPD STANDARDS OFFICE · TEN MODULES

£25.00

Course Features

Lectures 12
Quizzes 2
Duration Lifetime access
Skill level All levels
Language English
Students 2
Certificate Yes
Assessments Self